SAN FRANCISCO — The Bonds name is plenty familiar in San Francisco. Bobby Bonds was a three-time All-Star and featured an uncommon blend of power and speed. Barry Bonds, of course, is the all-time home run king and one of the best to ever play the game.
On day one of the 2026 MLB draft, the Giants added another Bonds to the organization.
Following their selection of Bay Area native Jackson Flora with the fourth overall pick, the Giants selected Peyton Bonds with the 90th overall pick out of Rutgers.
Bonds, an outfielder, is the nephew of Barry Bonds and grandson of the late Bobby Bonds. Standing at 6-foot-5, Bonds finished his junior season with a .352/.436/.535 slash line with six home runs over 36 games before a hamstring injury ended his season.
“We drafted him because of his ability and what we believe in him,” said senior director of amateur scouting Michael Holmes. “Just a really unique talent. Super strong, athletic, super high exit velocities off the bat. We think there’s some things we can do with the swing to help him elevate the baseball a little bit.
“Anytime you get a guy named Bonds, you’re crazy if you don’t get excited,” said manager Tony Vitello.
“You get an athlete in the middle of the diamond, center field, hits the ball hard, it’s a real good starter kid. He’s a Giant because of Peyton Bonds.”
Bonds, who turns 21 next week, played alongside Trevor Cohen, who was San Francisco’s third-round selection in last year’s draft.
“We met with Peyton at the combine, so I had a chance to sit down and talk with him for a pretty good stint there, spend some time with him. We joked about Cohen being a Giant and what that would be like for him. I think he was pretty excited about it,” Holmes said.
Bonds was the only position player that the Giants drafted on the draft’s first day, the other four being Flora, left-hander Carson Bolemon (Competitive Balance Round A, 29th overall) and right-handers Kaden Waechter (second round, 55th overall) and Carlos Martinez (fourth round, 118th overall).
Vitello said following Saturday’s 4-2 win that he tried recruiting Bolemon to Tennessee, but the left-hander instead opted for Wake Forest. Bolemon, the back-to-back South Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year, was considered to be one of the best high school pitchers in this year’s draft.
“Very athletic. Swung the bat in high school, was a really good hitter. Elite makeup. Two distinct types of breaking balls that he can land both for strikes,” Holmes said. “We think it’s a really polished high school pitching kind of product, but we think there are some things that we can help him with that he’ll be able to continue to improve.”